1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a water treating apparatus for treating water using a hollow fiber membrane module.
2. Description of the Related Art
In water treating apparatuses for treating organic wastewater, sewage water or other wastewater, a method is used wherein a hollow fiber membrane module is contained in a housing, and filtration treatment is carried out using the hollow fiber membrane module. Various structures have been proposed for the hollow fiber membrane module. Among them, a so-called vertical hollow fiber membrane module, which is structured to be disposed in a housing such that the longitudinal direction of the hollow fiber membrane module is vertical, may sometimes be used.
When the above-described vertical hollow fiber membrane module is to be replaced or checked, the hollow fiber membrane module is typically pulled upward in the vertical direction to be removed from the housing. For minimizing the height to which the hollow fiber membrane module needs to be lifted, a structure has been proposed where the hollow fiber membrane module is contained in a housing that can be divided into multiple parts in the longitudinal direction (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-224796). In the structure disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-224796, the hollow fiber membrane module is contained in a cartridge, and the cartridge is contained in the housing. The housing is formed by three or more members coupled to each other. In order to remove the hollow fiber membrane module from the housing, upper two members and a lower cylindrical member forming the housing are decoupled, and the cartridge and the hollow fiber membrane module are pulled out in the vertical direction together with the upper two members.
Although the structure disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-224796 allows reducing the height to which the hollow fiber membrane module needs to be lifted, the cartridge have to be pulled upward from the housing for replacing the hollow fiber membrane module. This necessitates an enough space between the housing and the ceiling for accommodating the pulled out cartridge, and therefore the vertical hollow fiber membrane module may not be installed at a place with a low ceiling.